Publications

Engaging young people as partners in community change is a compelling idea, but translating that idea into effective practice requires focused attention to a range issues. The principles described in this paper emerged from the commingling of research and practice that occurred when the Forum for Youth Investment merged with Community IMPACT! USA.

This tool was created in order to help young people and adults develop a common language for talking about how to improve schools. The tool provides educators, young people, administrators, policy makers, parents, community members and other stake holders with a common lens for reflecting on their schools and for planning change.

Anyone working to increase postsecondary success knows that aligning the work of various stakeholders and helping sectors work together is essential – and a new issue brief shows how leaders are making that happen on both the community and state levels.

High Expectations and Strong Supports Yield Postsecondary Success is the second installment in the Forum for Youth Investment’s Ready by 21, Credentialed by 26 series. This new brief demonstrates that it is in fact possible to insulate the education pipeline for older, vulnerable youth, by providing the supports necessary for their success.

The first in a new Ready by 21, Credentialed by 26 series, this issue brief explores why postsecondary completion is an important goal and looks at how the U.S. is currently faring. It identifies partners that need to be mobilized and policy approaches that need to be enacted in order to significantly increase completion rates and help more young people successfully transition to adulthood.

Balancing work and school can hinder a young person’s success in higher education. However, the opposite can also be true: Good jobs facilitate student persistence and completion. So what does it look like when working works for students? That’s what we need to understand in order to transform employment opportunities into drivers of student success.

The Office of the Budget recognizes that it is important to provide agencies with a flexible management tool to assist in identifying and achieving agency goals and objectives. The strategic plan is a management tool. Strategic planning is a long-term, future-oriented process of assessment, goal setting, and decision making that maps an explicit path between the present and a vision of the future — usually three to five years.

The Youth Advisory Board serves the Des Moines City Council, providing a voice for youth in city government. The Mission of the City of Des Moines Youth Advisory Board is to improve community through youth involvement.